The present invention relates to a method of preparing a substrate useful for smoking articles, and particularly to a reconstituted tobacco material for the same.
Cigarettes are popular smoking articles which have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and include a charge of tobacco material surrounded by a wrapper, such as paper, thereby forming a so-called "tobacco rod." It has become desirable to manufacture a cigarette having a cylindrical filter aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter includes cellulose acetate circumscribed by plug wrap, and is attached to the tobacco rod using a circumscribing tipping material. See, Baker, Prog. Ener. Combust. Sci., Vol. 7, pp. 135-153 (1981).
Typical cigarettes include blends of various tobaccos, such as the flue-cured, Burley, Md. and Oriental tobaccos. Cigarette blends also can include certain amounts of processed and reconstituted tobacco materials. Reconstituted tobacco materials often are manufactured from tobacco stems, dust and scrap using papermaking processes. See, Tobacco Encyclopedia, edit. by Voges, pp. 389-390, TJI (1984). See, also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,385,303 to Hind, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,126 to Gellatly and U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,692 to Gellatly.
It would be desirable to provide a reconstituted tobacco material having mechanical and physical properties comparable to natural tobacco materials and reconstituted tobacco material manufactured using papermaking processes.